Tag Archives: side dish

Rosemary Cumin Sweet Potato Towers – Paleo, Gluten Free, Vegetarian

Easiest, tastiest and prettiest little side dish. For some reason, when you stack sweet potato slices into little towers, they taste even more amazing than normal. Make as a fancy schmancy side dish or just a fun way to eat your veggies.

Just a few steps. First, slice…I used longer and skinnier sweet potatoes because they will fit in the muffin tins better than really fat ones.

Second…Drizzle melted ghee (or butter), olive oil or coconut oil for a vegan option, stack the slices high in your muffin tin and bake. When I say stack em high, I mean it. The ones below were stacked well over the muffin cavity and you can see how much they shrunk down.

Once done, scoop em out with a spoon and enjoy. They are also a nice alternative to butter soaked sweet potatoes at holiday dinners. They’ll go quick so you’ll want to make at least 2 trays full.

Warm Chicken Kale Coconut Wheat Berry Salad

I love when I can use all my leftover ingredients in another delicious recipe. It’s like a mini kitchen challenge to me. I had some leftover kale from my Easy Peazy “Cheesy” Chickpea and Kale Sauté and I had finally unpacked all of my dry goods so I was like a kid in a candy store. No really, cooking makes me that happy 🙂

Not only does kale make me do a happy dance but wheat berries do to! I love these little chewy nutty berries. They have protein, fiber, are rich in vitamins B1 and B3; and the minerals magnesium, phosphorus, copper, manganese and selenium. I buy mine from the bulk section at Whole Foods or Sprouts. I even made a Wheat Berry Waldorf Salad with them that turned out amaze-balls.

Ok so I combined my love of kale, wheat berries and coconut. Turned the protein factor up a notch and added some bite size pieces of chicken. You can actually omit the chicken if you wanted to make this salad vegan. You still get protein from the kale, wheat berries and a little from the coconut. Adding the chicken makes this a meal for me as opposed to a side.

The only thing about wheat berries is that they require a little planning. I soak mine overnight in water then when I’m ready to use them the next day I cook them for an hour on the stove. Some people don’t soak overnight and cook theirs for 2 hours on the stove. I’ve done it both ways and they both work but I prefer soaking because I feel like berries get plumper by soaking. But it could just all be in my head, who knows. Wheat berries are worth the extra step in my opinion, I love them.

You can time this recipe very easily if you just follow the simple instructions. If you have pre-soaked your berries you will drain them, put them in a medium saucepan and cover with water about an inch above the berries. Heat to a low boil for an hour. But…1/2 into the boiling you can start the rest of the recipe and everything should come together at the same time.

2 Tbsp coconut aminos (can sub with soy sauce but it will not be a paleo recipe then)

1 Tbsp coconut oil (for cooking chicken)

1 tsp dark sesame oil

½ tsp ground ginger powder

pinch of salt/pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook soaked wheat berries in a medium saucepan and bring to a low boil, cook for 1 hour adding a little water if it boils away. 30 minutes into cooking the wheat berries, start the rest of the recipe in the order below.

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a large bowl, whisk olive oil, sesame oil and coconut aminos. Remove 2 Tbsp of mixture and set aside to use at the end of the recipe.

Add kale and coconut flakes to olive oil mixture and combine so that the kale is covered. I used my hands and massaged the oil into everything.

Place kale/coconut now covered in olive oil mixture onto a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Toss kale/coconut and cook for another 5 minutes.

While the kale is cooking, saute the chicken.

In a large saute pan, add chicken, 1 Tbsp of coconut oil, ground ginger and salt/pepper. Saute until chicken is slightly browned all over.

At this time, everything should close to being done all together, give or take a minute or two.

Once all of your ingredients are prepared (wheat berries, kale/coconut and chicken), combine everything into a big bowl and top with the 2 Tbsp of the olive oil mixture you reserved.

Toss everything and serve.

Store leftovers in a covered bowl in the fridge and reheat as needed. It reheats really good so it can be made ahead of time.

Easy Peazy “Cheesy” Chickpea and Kale Sauté

This is my first recipe in our new house in Fountain Hills, AZ! I’m so excited. So what better way to celebrate than with some KALE! But seriously, I made this recipe because it was so super easy. Not only easy but DAIRY FREE, GLUTEN FREE, VEGAN and PALEO! Plus calcium, protein and fiber.

What makes it so cheesy is the nutritional yeast. I use Bragg Nutritional Yeast. I found mine at Vitamin Shoppe but Amazon has it too. I use it to make Baked Cheesy Kale Chips too. If you don’t know about nutritional yeast, I use it as a substitute for cheesy flavor. It’s tangy like a sharp cheese and melts up pretty good. I even shake it on my popcorn.

I found this recipe at www.fannetasticfood.com, made a couple of tweaks and bam, yummy cheesy chickpea kale salad!

The directions are so easy peazy. Put everything in a saute pan, saute for 5 – 10 minutes and serve warm or cold

I cooked mine for a good 10 minutes because I like my cooked kale really soft but if you still like a little crunch, 5 minutes worked good.

Red Pepper Thai Coconut Asparagus with Quinoa

I opened the fridge and realized I hadn’t made anything with the asparagus I’d bought recently. I remembered a recipe I came across recently and remembered the words “thai” and “coconut” but not much else. That was enough for me though. The light bulb went off and I started gathering ingredients like Edward Scissorhands trimming a hedge lol.

I wasn’t sure how this would turn out but of course I was hoping for the best. It had so many of my favorite foods and flavors so how could it not kick ass?

Thankfully, it kicked ass! So much so that I walked away for a few minutes and when I came back to the kitchen, half of it was gone. Hubby owed up and said “I ate it, it was really good!” That’s the best compliment of all. He even requested I make it again this week.

½ cup uncooked quinoa (you'll use the coconut milk to cook the quinoa instead of water)

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk + 1 tablespoon, separated

1 Tablespoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes + a pinch, separated

½ teaspoon paprika

big pinch of curry powder

dash salt/pepper

Instructions

In a medium saucepan, prepare quinoa. Combine uncooked quinoa with 1 cup of coconut milk. Bring to a boil then reduce to a very low simmer, add teaspoon of red pepper flakes, stir and cover. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If after 10 minutes there is still liquid left in the pan, uncover pan and let the liquid cook off.

While the quinoa is cooking, heat coconut oil in a medium skillet and add onion. Saute on medium for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add paprika, curry powder and salt/pepper, stir.

Add asparagus and combine everything in the skillet. Continue to saute on medium for 3 - 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Tangy Three Bean Salad

After being on vacation for the past few days, I was really anxious to get back in the kitchen. Seriously, who am I? If you knew me a couple of years ago, the last room you would find me in was the kitchen. At least not for the purpose of cooking. Eating yes, cooking no.

Simple recipes like this provide loads of protein and fiber which keeps you fuller longer. This particular recipe has 7 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber per 1/2 cup. Those are awesome stats for only a 1/2 cup.

We ate this as a healthy bean relish with homemade pita chips and triscuits to scoop it up for a little snack.